Friday Filler – To Monorail or Manyrail?? What do YOU Do?

It has really been “one of those weeks.” Ok…if I am honest, it has been “one of those months.” As part of my “real life business” I provide news servers for tons of broadcasters across the country. And the news…well…like I said...it’s been “one of those months.”

So…I AM SOOOOOO HAPPY to get more monorail station(s). Not sure why I wrote it like that, as you can’t get more station. But you could get another station, or more stations. I guess I was just being lazy. But, I digress…

The fact is, as I have stated many times before, I think the monorail(s) is the single most exciting, best-ever, development in TSTO. OK. So I did it again. I don’t think you can have monorails…as mono implies a single rail. But can you have more than one monorail? Of course! And with the addition of the new station(s), it is time to make some serious monorail redesign(s) decision(s)!!

The primary monorail question is…ONE HUGE Monorail loop? One even huge(r) monorail system that isn’t looped? Or how about many individual monorail systems within the your layout? It’s the kind of question(s) that can drive a train-nut like myself even nuttier!

This is much like some of the municipal projects we have in Eugene. It took them over a decade to decide on a plan for the “rapid transit bus line” in Eugene. It took them another decade to build it (gotta love main thoroughfares being gutted and diverted), and now that it is finished…hardly anyone rides it. Because it’s Eugene…and our “rush hour” lasts about 25 minutes. But, I digress…again…

Let’s take a look at the option(s)…

The first option is a complete closed loop. This is more of a traditional “model train set” loop, and is the way that the original Springfield monorail was laid out in “Marge -vs- The Monorail” (S4E12). As you can see from the original model being sold by Lyle Lanley, it was a simple loop. In reality, as we saw from the control tower, the loop was actually much more complex, even at 180 MPH while it was flying around out of control.

The primary advantage to this system, is that the train is optimized for size (as long a you are using enough track), and it will make a nice, gentle stop at every station on your layout. The disadvantage? It only runs one direction until you close the session…and it is a much shorter “round trip” run. The longest I have had a closed loop run, is a little more than 4 minutes.

Of course, “loop” is a pretty malleable term, as the track can run any number of directions, including through the tunnels to and from Springfield Heights, meandering any place the track can be placed (including beach property) and even across water (not the ocean).

But if you really want to maximize the run time(s) of your monorail(s), you can choose…Option 2- Non-Loop-Open-Layout or NLOL for short.
The fun part of this, is that you can take your track anywhere you choose…and because you don’t have to worry about a plan that actually ends up tying all of the loose ends together into a closed loop, the train will go from point A to point Z, reverse, and go backward over the entire layout. This is actually more how real municipal monorails run. It is more efficient…and a route can service the same areas, both front and back, without someone having to run the entire rout to get from station to station.

The NLOL is my current layout option, and it means that running from station A to station Z and back again, can take as long as 9 minutes…round trip. Pretty cool.

It meanders through almost all of my layout…in some capacity or other. But it is still just ONE long stretch of track, which is different than those who chose…

OPTION 3- Multi-Service-Route or MSR, has been employed by a great number of my neighbors. I have seen some closed loops, running side-by-side with some short-line routes (one or two stations with train running back and forth), as well as some extensive NLOL layouts running in tandem, and then splitting off into different sectors of their Springfield(s) and Springfield Heights(s).

With the addition of the two latest station(s), I said two…because I didn’t have the Krusty Station before and bought them both…I am seriously considering a very large monorail(s) overhaul! It is time to shake things up…and nothing (except for Nuking a town) shakes things up more than jack-hammering your entire monorail system, and starting over from scratch. I know…with the news these days, “Nuking” is not exactly a popular term. But, the great thing about the Monorail…is that it is NEVER FINISHED, and offers new track (as well as bonus donuts) every week and is a GREAT diversion from real life Nuking threats in the news! Good luck on using all of that track…but I’m gonna give it a try!

HOW DO YOU LAY OUT YOUR MONORAIL(S)??? What do you do to make your layout unique and fun? We want to know!

125 responses to “Friday Filler – To Monorail or Manyrail?? What do YOU Do?”

I’ve just obtained the North Pole station and added it into one my existing monorail loops however in order to unlock it I’m told to connect 7 more track pieces to this station. No matter how many pieces I add it still says add 7 more…any idea

Glitch…I suspect there is a patch coming. This update also through my existing North Pole station off kilter…but it is a mirage. The monorail rolls right past the weird break in the track…just looks weird.

Stuart, Patric’s right, I’m seeing the same thing and when I tried to “fix” the alignment I got the error you see. Just shift your station by one square and the monorail should appear and work again (and then someday soon I imagine a patch will come).

Does anyone else have the same OCD rule I do that monorail pylons can *not* be in the street…but must be only on sidewalk squares (or on land)? It makes it awkward when turning a corner across a road (the track has to swing out first to make it all line up) but for some reason I’ve never been able to tolerate the sight of those pylons being on the pavement. Hey, we all have our thing! 😀

Patric, your post (and the 2 new stations I bought) finally pushed to me to the task of moving my entire Heights track one square back so I could align it with my tunnels. Now I have all of the available stations (I think) and one continuous loop through town of about 5 minutes.

Now I need to load up on the long pieces so I can get rid of all those short ones. Sadly, my railyard is not letting me do more than one set a week so no extra donuts (or chances for the long pieces).

I don’t even use my monorail because I don’t like the track pieces covering parts of my building and decorations. I think it looks too messy.
Two exceptions: I have the tetanus station built in behind Cletus’ house so he has a big wooden compound. I have the krusty station surrounded by parking spots and then a track that crosses the street to krusty burger so the health loving krusty burger patrons don’t have to walk to the store

It seems so….we aren’t sure if it is a glitch, or a permanent change, but many, including myself, are seeing the cycle just reset and start over when you finish a cycle and earn 5 donuts. I’m on my 4th or 5th cycle this week.

The text at the bottom of the task screen appears to specifically point out the change… so whether or not it’s permanent may be up for question, but at the very least, it certainly seems to be intentional. (Wish I had noticed it sooner, though! Moar donuts!!)

I’m doing a continuous loop and at first I was frustrated there was such an imbalance of long straight pieces to curved ones. I’m really enjoying trying to make my monorail as dizzying and silly as I can. Building layout comes comes first, and rail fills in spaces, cutting through town in a nonsensical layout

Mine is in a complete loop, running within Springfield, through the tunnels to heights and then back to Springfield. I did not get too creative with the design as I do not like the tracks to cover my buildings.

Yeah I started out trying to use all the pieces / items I received in the game and keep my storage empty (or almost empty) but ran into trouble with that model of gameplay when I started hitting the upper item limit!

I was so excited about the new station that I remodeled almost the entire route. I have opted for one big closed system. Sadly, I have never timed it. The new route makes me so happy! Since I have had all the stations for a very long time, some were too close together or too messy (when I got them, I didn’t plan the additions well and left it as a bad go) or both. Now they have been moved and reorganized and are pretty. Yay!

What a surprise to see two of my track layouts in this post. Glad you like my layout, but relieved you didn’t show how crummy the rest of my Springfield is at the moment.
Had to get the new station immediately, as the monorail is my hands-down favourite feature game. Hoping that platforms and stairs for the new station are coming soon.
Starting a new layout this evening, now that I’ve finished this terms’ final papers. Want to do a big overhaul for a new track line, as I like each station to have its own line, although might have to consider a “main line” with a couple of stations, if track supplies become tight.
If you good folk at addicts have a show-and-tell gap sometime, I’d love to see some of the other towns track plans.
Cheers from the edge of the map, kiwikitty88

I have two closed loops.
The northern route connects 4 stations and takes 3:37 for a complete trip.
The southern route connects 2 stations and takes 3:09.
The longer route is Basic Intracity Transportation Easy for You. Yes, I call the big one B.I.T.E.Y.

Is anyone out there having issues with notifications from the game? My tablet seems to have some kind of issue and won’t give me notifications from the game like when jobs are done etc but I still get them on my phone. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix that? I’ve tried reloading the game, force stopping, restarting, looking at the settings but nothing has worked this far.

I believe you’ve just convinced me to get the Magic Station instead of the trees. I have one big loop (soon to be bigger), but multiple loops, especially with a central station, sounds intriguing. I’ll have to think about this.

I have one big loop that I expanded out for the first time in forever with the magic station (thank jeebus for the 18 extra pieces they gave to ad to my collection of hundreds) THE most frustrating thing for me with EA is I have two tunnels that I can’t connect to my loop because they are half of a short piece off. Seems like an easy fix for them. For me I would have to adjust the entirety my 4 year old Springfield one space over….why oh why won’t EA help us? By my math this should be an issue for half the players. Do love me a monorail though!

If you’re lucky you might be able to some S-curve pieces to close the gap. But unfortunately it probably means your entire monorail needs to be moved. I had that issue long before the tunnels came out, and had to spend an eternity shifting the whole thing so my loop would all line up.

Yep. It was written about extensively when the tunnels were added. It is just luck of the draw, as some were lucky enough to hit it the connections without problem. I had to move close to 700 pieces of track. But, once it’s done…it’s done.

Just a quick question. Is there a limit to the number of monorail track sections you can make? I’m worried that by going through the rail yard tasks to get donuts each week, I will eventually fill up my storage. Not sure if this question has been asked before.

You can make unlimited track pieces and your inventory can store unlimited number of items. When you have too many items out in your town, your game will give you warning and your game speed may slow down. But tracks probably won’t be the main cause of this issue.

i ran 4 tracks/trains for a while. Then went for a loop. As i now have the 2 new stations i’ve gone foe 6 tracks/trains including a central hub where all six meet. i just love watching them pass each other. for a short stretch 6 lines are as close as they can be before diverging. i put a couple of pics on Flickr TSTO

Monorail is defining one of my favorite parts of the game. For some reason I’m real anal about the support beams so I spend a lot of time redesigning to keep them off the roads.

I have a lot of extra track pieces so it really doesn’t effect me but it would be nice if they had a way to change your extra track pieces. If only they had some type of character who was known for bending beams… some type of Bender if you will.

Well my monorail is one loop. It’s currently not working due to leaves on the track (happens every autumn/fall). Actually, it’s because it makes my game lag/takes ages to load. So my neighbours can’t ride it, which is a shame. I’ve had to snooze some neighbours’ towns for the same reason. Loved monorail when it was introduced to the game, but now disillusioned because of that reason…..💜X

I treat my Springfield almost like a large amusement park, with sections for Halloween, Christmas & event areas. As such, I have one big loop with stations representing the areas: North Pole station serves the Christmas area, Cletus Station serves Halloween (although, ATM the new Magical station serves a new area, I may swap that for Halloween & put the Cletus station in my old west town area). I even have my track do a semi-circle around my Efcot ball, like in the real Epcot at Disney. I had planned on taking the countries and putting them in a arc behind the ball, but that would mean a big overhaul to move my old west & Christmas areas & with events popping up left & right these days, I don’t have the days needed to do a real overhaul of those areas.

1 loop goes around my town, through the tunnel and a small line which I will integrate into a Christmas area using Santa station, just wish ea would design a steam monorail train, the flying Scotsman being my favorite train and was here a few months ago after a refit.

I had one big loop, but then I bought the Magic Station and started up a second loop. Would be nice if EA would introduce a cross pieces so that the loops can be joined. Also a new Station with 2 rails would be nice so 2 loops could be supported by 1 station. Just dreaming, cough, cough…